Writing Home with Chris Karaskiwicz
Chris Karaskiewicz
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: News
For me studying in China was the chance of a lifetime, but since I had no prior experience with the customs, the language or the landscape, trying to survive was kind of a gamble. After I arrived, if I wasn't coping with jetlag, I spent most of my time coping with mild bouts of culture shock. I say mild because the urban setting of Beijing is not completely alien to anyone from a big city like ours, and I was even able to scrounge up a couple of decent pizza places to hold me over until I returned to Chicago. Still the challenges I went through were what made my discoveries all the more worth while. Whether it was scrambling to brush up on 3000 years of history or cramming about 4000 Hanzi (Chinese characters) into my head, my ride may have been a little bumpy at first, but once I got my bearings straight everything seemed to fall into place.
The first challenge was the food of course. Chinese and Westerners have very different tastes to say the least, and Americans learn
pretty quickly that most of the stuff they sell back home in your
local China-town is not in fact Chinese food, it's American-Chinese food. While that type of food is closest to the Hong Kong culinary style, you won't find any of that in Beijing- and you can forget about fortune cookies. Furthermore, the style you will find is not even a Beijing style of cooking; it's from the South of China. I guess, sort of like Americans love Mexican food, Beijingers have embraced these dishes from down under, which coincidentally are also very spicy.
My trouble wasn't with the style, taste or spice of the food though, it was my stomach. Although it took me some time to adjust to the food preparation and dietary habits of China, after a few weeks of exercising my tongue, I am proud to say that my belly is now bilingual. Also, the more I kept at it, the hungrier I became to explore the city, if for nothing else than to find better restaurants. While the old adage says, "a stomach is a way to a man's heart," mine was the way to Beijing.
The first challenge was the food of course. Chinese and Westerners have very different tastes to say the least, and Americans learn
pretty quickly that most of the stuff they sell back home in your
local China-town is not in fact Chinese food, it's American-Chinese food. While that type of food is closest to the Hong Kong culinary style, you won't find any of that in Beijing- and you can forget about fortune cookies. Furthermore, the style you will find is not even a Beijing style of cooking; it's from the South of China. I guess, sort of like Americans love Mexican food, Beijingers have embraced these dishes from down under, which coincidentally are also very spicy.
My trouble wasn't with the style, taste or spice of the food though, it was my stomach. Although it took me some time to adjust to the food preparation and dietary habits of China, after a few weeks of exercising my tongue, I am proud to say that my belly is now bilingual. Also, the more I kept at it, the hungrier I became to explore the city, if for nothing else than to find better restaurants. While the old adage says, "a stomach is a way to a man's heart," mine was the way to Beijing.
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